Classical Concert Reviews Cinci

@xaviermusicseries concluded its 2025-26 guitar series with a fantastic recital in Xavier’s Bellarmine Chapel by Korean guitarist Bokyung Byun, 2023 recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and guitar faculty at the University of North Texas in Denton, under the title Beloved: Music Written for Those We Love.
Performing repertoire drawn mostly from 20th century composers like Agustín Barrios, Eduardo Sainz de la Maza and Carlos Guastavino with occasional detours toward contemporary works, it felt gratifying to know that more and more artists of Ms. Byun’s generation are exploring repertoire for guitar that otherwise remains unexplored.
As the guitar is one of the softer string instruments, Byun’s playing focused more on intimacy and hidden passion, with a luminous tone and effervescent sense of line to match each piece.
Two works gave ample opportunity for Byun to show off the guitar’s virtuosic side, the Sonata No. 2 of Guastavino and a late Passacaglia written in 1956 by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesvo. In both cases, Byun showed off a level of musicianship filled with sensational vitality that is a rare sight indeed. Following a pair of pieces by South Korean composer Lee Byungwoo, she encored with a sensual reading of Barrios’ last published guitar work, El último Tremolo (1944).
As guitar recitals have become a more rarefied experience in major cities like New York and Chicago, it is gratifying to see a university like @xavieruniversity bring such exciting virtuosos of this instrument to Cincinnati, and I eagerly look forward to what awaits in the 2026-27 season.